Last weekend Dave and I broke free and made the drive to Frankfort Kentucky for the 2011 National Paddling Film Festival.

It was my first time attending and Raven Fork was the feature presentation on Friday night. The Buffalo Trace Distillery was the perfect venue for a kayak gathering. The all volunteer NPFF staff decked it out with food, beer, and HD projection.

The cool part for me was watching the reactions of the Kentucky boating contingency to the Russel Fork sequence. Blake's piton and Dave's epic mystery move went over well.

Brandon Jett wrote a follow up note and said we helped raise over $13,000 for river based charities and American Whitewater.

Goodtimes. It was good to be able to watch all of the boatn' films of the year in one fail swoop.

While some might think the whitewater industry is treading water, one filmmaker is banking that audiences will lap up the newest river film to hit the silver screen. Raven Fork, produced by Thomas Oliver, is playing two industry focus group screenings during the Outdoor Retailer 2010 Summer Show in Salt Lake City, UT.

It isn't another documentary. Instead, this is the first-ever feature-length dramatic kayaking film to huck its way into Hollywood. The storyline examines the beauty of nature, importance of friendship and unpredictable perils of fate through the eyes of a band of Southeast Kayakers.

In a nutshell: Living in the mountain of North Carolina, two friends Dave (Glenn Laplante) and Blake (Frank Jordan) find life, friendship and adrenaline traveling from kayak trip to kayak trip. After making plans to run the Class V Raven Fork deep in the Appalachian wilderness, a tragic river accident and self destructive tailspin highlights the plight of the human spirit's desire to prevail.

"I always knew I was going to do a kayak feature, but wanted to do something relevant that hadn't been seen before." said Oliver, whose production follows his first release, Green River: On the Down Low. "I wanted to do something that paddlers could enjoy but would also be well- received by the mainstream. It cut through a lot of the 'dude factor' you see in other kayak films."

While the plot isn't based on a true story, it draws upon Oliver's 15 years of kayaking. All of its actors, including Lunch Video Magazine's John Grace, are experienced paddlers doing their own stunts.

"It has elements for everyone," Oliver added. "A lot of people are surprised that it's a solid story. Core paddlers can relate to its emotion, adrenaline and friendships, while those outside the sport get an authentic look at the paddlesports culture."

Thomas W. Oliver’s Raven Fork, a local production, makes its debut this week. It’s the kind of film that will appeal much more strongly to aficionados of the sport at its core—whitewater kayaking—than it will to the uninitiated. This doesn’t mean that it has no appeal outside that core group, however. Far from it. Whether you go in for this sort of activity or if you—like I—think cross-country sitting is quite strenuous enough, there’s an appeal to the sheer beauty of the kayaking scenes. Better yet, Oliver has a terrific eye for composition and nearly every shot—at least the exteriors—is gauged for maximum visual impact.

Raven Fork is ultimately a niche film. There’s no doubt of that and there’s nothing wrong with that. But as I say, it has merits that crossover into more general interest, mostly through the film’s visuals. But the story also has a fairly broad appeal, since tales of friendship, loss, redemption and the need for closure are universal. It’s also an important new look into the Asheville filmmaking scene. Thomas Oliver is a very promising voice on that scene. His film is worth catching and his progress worth following.

"Green River: On The Down Low" was an official selection at the 2009 National Paddling Film Festival.

The festival was hosted by World Squirt Boat Champion Clay Wright.

I received this question from Clay:

"Hey Thomas, Curious what this piece is for? Seems more film or TV like than paddle-porn."

-Clay

"Green River: On the Down Low" was shot as a camera/crew/actor/river test. I needed to know how we were going to handle different types of scenes. The best way to learn is to do so I wrote out about 5-6 scenes for our cast and crew. We went out and shot them and learned a lot.

The original project had no intention of being a short film. Once everything was shot and each scene was in a rough cut someone mentioned that is was kind of like a little story and asked "what happened to the kayaker?"

I went into editing and came out with something that was presentable.

So that is what it was originally for. Now it's a calling card for "Raven Fork" my feature film we've been shooting since July 2008.